Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California Irvine, Orange, CA, USA.
Department of Surgery, University of California Irvine, Orange, CA, USA.
Emerg Radiol. 2023 Feb;30(1):27-32. doi: 10.1007/s10140-022-02096-4. Epub 2022 Oct 29.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to substantial disruptions in healthcare staffing and operations. Stay-at-home (SAH) orders and limitations in social gathering implemented in spring 2020 were followed by initial decreases in healthcare and imaging utilization. This study aims to evaluate the impact of subsequent easing of SAH on trauma volumes, demand for, and turnaround times for trauma computed tomography (CT) exams, hypothesizing that after initial decreases, trauma volumes have increased as COVID safety measures have been reduced.
Patient characteristics, CT imaging volumes, and turnaround time were analyzed for all adult activated emergency department trauma patients requiring CT imaging at a single Level-I trauma center (1/2018-2/2022) located in the sixth most populous county in the USA. Based on COVID safety measures in place in the state of California, three time periods were compared: baseline (PRE, 1/1/2018-3/19/2020), COVID safety measures (COVID, 3/20/2020-1/25/2021), and POST (1/26/2021-2/28/2022).
There were 16,984 trauma patients across the study (PRE = 8289, COVID = 3139, POST = 5556). The average daily trauma patient volumes increased significantly in the POST period compared to the PRE and COVID periods (13.9 vs. 10.3 vs. 10.1, p < 0.001), with increases in both blunt (p < 0.001) and penetrating (p = 0.002) trauma. The average daily number of trauma CT examinations performed increased significantly in the POST period compared to the PRE and COVID periods (56.7 vs. 48.3 vs. 47.6, p < 0.001), with significant increases in average turnaround time (47 min vs. 31 and 37, p < 0.001).
After initial decreases in trauma radiology volumes following stay-at-home orders, subsequent easing of safety measures has coincided with increases in trauma imaging volumes above pre-pandemic levels and longer exam turnaround times.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行导致医疗保健人员配备和运营出现重大中断。2020 年春季实施的居家令和社交聚会限制措施之后，医疗保健和影像学利用初始减少。本研究旨在评估随后放宽居家令对创伤量、创伤 CT 检查需求和周转时间的影响，假设随着 COVID 安全措施的减少，创伤量已增加。
在位于美国第六大人口县的单一一级创伤中心（2018 年 1 月至 2022 年 2 月），分析所有需要 CT 成像的成人激活急诊科创伤患者的患者特征、CT 成像量和周转时间。根据加利福尼亚州实施的 COVID 安全措施，将三个时间段进行比较：基线（PRE，2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2020 年 3 月 19 日）、COVID 安全措施（COVID，2020 年 3 月 20 日至 2021 年 1 月 25 日）和 POST（2021 年 1 月 26 日至 2022 年 2 月 28 日）。
研究中有 16984 例创伤患者（PRE=8289，COVID=3139，POST=5556）。与 PRE 和 COVID 期相比，POST 期的平均每日创伤患者量显着增加（13.9 对 10.3 对 10.1，p<0.001），钝性（p<0.001）和穿透性（p=0.002）创伤均增加。与 PRE 和 COVID 期相比，POST 期的平均每日创伤 CT 检查数量显着增加（56.7 对 48.3 对 47.6，p<0.001），平均周转时间显着增加（47 分钟对 31 分钟和 37 分钟，p<0.001）。
在居家令导致创伤放射学量最初减少之后，随后放宽安全措施与创伤成像量增加至大流行前水平以及检查周转时间延长同时发生。
